“Very wonderful,” assented San Giacinto,
who was thinking once more of his former poverty.

The carriage rolled on and both were silent for some
time, absorbed in dreaming of the greatness which
was before them in the near future, San Giacinto enumerating
in his mind the titles and estates which were soon
to be his, while Flavia imagined herself in Corona’s
place in Rome, grown suddenly to be a central figure
in society, leading and organising the brilliant amusements
of her world, and above all, rejoicing in that lavish
use of abundant money which had always seemed to her
the most desirable of all enjoyments.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Faustina Montevarchi was delighted when her sister
was at last married and out of the house. The
two had always been very good friends, but Faustina
felt that she had an enemy in San Giacinto and was
relieved when he was gone. She had no especial
reason for her suspicions, since he treated her with
the same quiet and amicable politeness which he showed
to the rest of the household; but her perceptions
were extraordinarily true and keen, and she had noticed
that he watched her whenever Gouache was in the room,
in a way that made her very uncomfortable. Moreover,
he had succeeded of late in making Flavia accompany
her to early mass on Sunday mornings on pretence of
his wishing to see Flavia without the inevitable supervision
of the old princess. The plan was ingenious;
for Faustina, instead of meeting Gouache, was thus
obliged to play chaperon while her sister and San Giacinto
talked to their hearts’ content. He was
a discreet man, however, and Flavia was ignorant of
the fact that Faustina and Anastase had sometimes
met in the same way, and would have met frequently
had they not been prevented. The young girl was
clever enough to see why San Giacinto acted as he
did; she understood that he was an ambitious man,
and that, as he was about to ally himself with her
family, he would naturally disapprove of her attachment
to Gouache. Now that he was gone, she wondered
whether he had devised any steps which would take
effect after his departure.

Faustina was quite as much in love as Gouache himself,
and spent much time in calculating the chances of
a favourable issue from the situation in which she
found herself. Life without Anastase was impossible,
but the probabilities of her becoming his wife in
the ordinary course of events were very few, as far
as she was able to judge, and she had moments of extreme
depression, during which she despaired of everything.
The love of a very young girl may in itself be both
strong and enduring, but it generally has the effect
of making her prone to extremes of hope and fear,
uncertain of herself, vacillating in her ideas, and
unsteady in the pursuit of the smaller ends of life.
Throw two equal weights into the scales of a perfectly
adjusted balance, the arm will swing and move erratically
many times before it returns to its normal position,
although there is a potential equilibrium in the machine
which will shortly assert itself in absolute tranquillity.